When the latest batch of Anker products came in for review, I honestly didn’t expect to find probably my favourite gadget of the year so far. I’m still even shocked to be typing it out. Admitting that something as humble as a charger can be as cool as the Anker 4 Port 140W GaN Charger is, is still quite mind-blowing.
The charger features 4 ports, 3x USB-C ports and 1x USB-A port, which allows one to charge multiple devices at the same time, with a maximum capacity of 140W. For more power-hungry devices, the top two USB-C ports support 140W, while the third USB-C port supports only 40W. The USB-A port also comes in a little lower at 33W max.
These numbers are what each port can handle when only one device is connected, but even with multiple ports active, you can still get pretty decent output overall.
My laptop ships with a 100W brick, so I figured I could quite easily replace that with this Anker charger, which fits the bill perfectly fine. Of course, I didn’t notice much of a power difference with just my laptop connected, but I did find the onscreen display nifty to watch as my laptop drew different amounts of power depending on what I was doing.
The on-screen display has a touch button that lets you flick between four screens: Total Power Draw, Power Draw per Port, Charger Temperature, and Charger Use Time. I mainly checked the per-port power split, as I found it interesting to see exactly how much power each device was drawing.
As an added, fun little feature, the charger also has a built-in face that winks and smiles at you when it turns on, or goes to sleep when nothing is connected. It’s not very useful, but a cute feature that I appreciated.
I also somehow found myself travelling quite a bit over the past few weeks, and this is where the Anker Charger really started to prove its worth. I could easily ditch every other charging brick I would carry around in my bag and replace it with just this one. Many nights, I found my laptop, iPhone and Switch plugged in to the device, all drawing the power they needed for another day of grinding and gaming.
The brick itself is pretty hefty, but it features a foldable 2-pin plug connection that snaps into position, making it perfect for tossing into your bag on the go. I’ll admit, the folding plug is cool for travel, but it can look pretty weird when the charger flops down from its own weight.
Aside from its cost, one negative I noticed is that the charger does a bit of power renegotiation when you connect a new device to it while something else is already plugged in. It will drop the power to around 1W for a brief moment before sending the required power out to the devices you’ve connected. Personally, I never had any issue with this, but if you are running heavy loads that may suffer from the brief power dip, you may want to consider that.
As for temperature, after just over 30 minutes of drawing 100W of power, split between my laptop doing a couple of bench tests, my iPhone, and my smart watch, the temperature display was at around 50% of its shut-off capacity. To the touch, the charger was a bit warm, but nothing I would complain about here either.
The cost is where things start to feel eina, though. You can pick up the Anker 4 Port 140W GaN Charger for around R2,000, but as it’s replaced every other charging brick I carry around with me on a daily basis, I feel like it’s well worth it.
I’ve already racked up over 250 hours on this little thing, and I’ve loved every one of those hours. For anyone who travels a lot with a good couple of devices, the pleasure of just having to connect up one brick to charge them all is hard to match.
Power Draw Information Per Port:
One Port in Use:
USB-C1: 9V⎓3A / 15V⎓3A / 20V⎓5A / 28V⎓5A (140W Max)
USB-C2: 9V⎓3A / 15V⎓3A / 20V⎓5A / 28V⎓5A (140W Max)
USB-C3: 5V⎓3A / 9V⎓3A / 15V⎓2.65A / 20V⎓2A (40W Max)
USB-A1: 5V⎓3A / 9V⎓2A / 12V⎓1.5A / 10V⎓2.25A / 11V⎓3A (33W Max)
Two Ports in Use:
USB-C1 + USB-C2: 70W + 70W
USB-C1 / C2 + C3: 100W + 40W
USB-C1 / C2 + A1: 100W + 33W
USB-C3 + USB-A1: 24W
Three Ports in Use:
USB-C1 + USB-C2 + USB-C3: 65W + 45W + 30W
USB-C1 + USB-C2 + USB-A1: 65W + 45W + 30W
USB-C1 / C2 + (USB-C3 + USB-A1): 100W + 24W
USB-C1 + USB-C2 (USB-C3 + USB-A1): 65W + 45W + 24W
Four Ports in Use:
USB-C1 + USB-C2 + USB-C3 + USB-A: 65W + 45W + 12W + 12W
Bonus Content:
The Anker 4 Port 140W GaN Charger comes with a pretty sweet 1m Anker Zolo 240W USB-C to USB-C Braided Fast Charging Cable. It’s dirt-resistant and features a soft mesh design, so it doesn’t coil up and stay that way when you travel with it. If you’re just looking for a decent high-powered USB-C to USB-C cable, you can pick one up separately for around R250.
